Sports

Playing up to par was not enough for Stanford golfers

It was a tough day to catch a break for No. 12 Stanford at the NCAA Women's Golf Championships.

Lauren Kim kept her place among the top three golfers but the Cardinal fell out of the top 10 after the third round of action in Tulsa on Thursday.

With mild weather conditions at the par-70 Tulsa Country Club, the Cardinal shot a 14-over 294 Thursday while falling from seventh to 14th among the 24-team field.

There was not a glaring weakness in the team's third round of the 72-hole national tournament, except for a number of tap-in pars which kept the Cardinal from advancing up the leaderboard.

Duke takes the overall lead into the final round while being chased by defending champion USC and Oklahoma.

Immediately in front of Stanford are Alabama and Vanderbilt, tied for 12th at 39-over.

Beginning its round on hole 10, Stanford climbed into third before making the turn after teaming to go 6-under on the par-5 16th.

Kim briefly held the individual lead midway through her round and settled with a 2-over 72. She is even for the tournament and in a three-way tie for third, three shots out of the money behind co-leaders Celine Boutier (Duke) and Doris Chen (USC).

Kim's birdie on her ninth hole snapped a streak of 29 holes without a red number. She would go 3-over on the back.

"It was a struggle out there," Kim said. "I still have some positives to take away going into tomorrow. There's still a lot more golf to be played, a full 18 holes tomorrow. I'm just trying to keep focused on what I did well."

Kim is joined in the top-30 by Mariah Stackhouse. The sophomore shot a 74 to move to 8-over through 54 holes. Stackhouse's only birdie came on the par-5 16th.

Casey Danielson's 74 was complemented by an eagle on 16, which came by draining a eight-foot putt.

Marissa Mar shaved three strokes off her previous round with a 74, and drained an eagle on 16 with a gem out of the greenside bunker.

Mar also fired a dart into the par-3 sixth that gave her a 14-inch birdie putt to get to even. She was 4-over on the closing three holes.

Mariko Tumangan was 9-over at 79. Her highlight also came on 16 in the form of a birdie.